It’s always nice to get away from your normal surroundings and go on “vacation,” even if only for a couple of nights. My husband Mike and I did just that last weekend when we packed our car, and drove to Charlevoix, MI for a two-night camping trip. The first order of business was…packing the car!

There is a certain “art” to packing the trunk of a car! WASTE NO SPACE! Hmm, can some cans of beer be shoved into the middle of those rolled green sleeping mats?

Since I’d already gassed up the car at Costco the day before ($2.73/gallon, woo hoo!), we only had to stop for a quick bite, and booze/ice before heading to our campsite at Fisherman’s Island State Park in Charlevoix. It’s a state park located on Lake Michigan, but it’s not…as pretty as it sounds! Before you get to really enjoy the park, you have to drive through the area occupied by the St. Mary Cement Co., a local business that shares adjacent real estate to the state park.

When you’re hanging out on the beach, you have to do your best to avoid this eyesore!

So, I guess you could say this was Reason #1 that this camping trip wasn’t “perfect.” Aside from the traffic congestion on U.S. 23 on our way “Up North,” that is! It’s all fine and good! If we didn’t have to deal with the visual (and auditory) annoyance of this cement plant, we’d be paying heftier fees to stay in this park! Really…if you look away from this…thing, the park is quite lovely. Lots of sandy beachfront, fantastic Great Lakes views (mostly pleasure boats, this wasn’t really a huge shipping channel, so big bummer, no freighters) and spacious rustic camp sites. We reserved site #19 in the second campground loop, and it looked like this, once we got everything set up…

Behold our REI four-person tent, which we’ve had since 2000.  Note, when a description of a tent lists how many people it sleeps, subtract from that number. This tent really only “comfortably” sleeps the two of us. And now that we’re both getting older, “crawling” out of a tent is getting a bit…old. We’re both thinking of buying a more “standup” tent. As my dad would say, this tent “doesn’t owe you anything.” It still holds up like a trouper in heavy rains, as it proved in July, 2017 in Rogers City, MI!

So we got ourselves settled in, started enjoying our drinks, and eyeballing the campfire. Even the bug levels were virtually non existent, which for someone like me,  was pretty important! I’ve always been kind of a “bug magnet.” Dry weather in Northern MI kept those pesky things at bay for most of our trip.

As Gilda Radner would so eloquently say? It’s Always Something.

And then “the” group showed up across the road from us. After 10 p.m., a large group of mostly children ages 12 years of age and younger and their parents/caretakers showed up to set up camp. As you can imagine a group like this, they weren’t exactly giving us the “silent treatment.” The sounds of the parents “shushing” the whiny/ noisy children was louder than the children themselves! Really, I can’t blame the kids for being noisy and cranky. The poor wee dears were probably a bit tired and were being shuttled off to a dark camp site!

The next morning, we were faced with all of their collective, rested noise. It just wouldn’t STOP. One little girl in particular (whom I think was about 3-4) was particularly talkative, and did it at full volume ALL THE TIME. We just had the shitty luck of being across from the absolute noisiest group in the entire campground loop. Mike wanted to ask the rangers if we could switch sites. I firmly said no – that would be too time-consuming. Also, I had heard that things were pretty much reserved/booked for at least a couple of days.

Soon enough, the problem would solve itself! The beach! Rather than simmer in our own juices and shake our fists at the noisy children, why not head to the beach? Oooh, let’s do! Let’s be sure to check what the “rules” are, first!

Damn, they changed the sign! This sign used to read, “No glass containers or animals.” No glass containers. Uh, OK! This is an important plot point, read on! 🙂

 

The big group of kids/adults decided to head down to the beach, and eventually, Mike and I would head to the beach, too! Each party could stake their own “claim” at the beach and be out of each others’ hair! And what better way to absorb the noisiness of a large group than lapping Great Lakes waves crashing ashore? I found a nice, shady spot to put my chair while I watched Mike become one with the water. It wasn’t quite warm enough for me to want to swim in the “big lake.” Blame too many summer camp experiences for that one! If the water ain’t “just right” to me, I will NOT get in it!

 

Here he is moving rocks around…or something!

Later in the afternoon, an old friend named Janet joined us. We met her and her husband Jan (both hippies at heart) back in the mid 1990s at the Wheatland Music Festival in Remus, MI. They used to own a rental cabin near Mancelona, MI, which Mike and I would rent at least 1-2 times a year. And we all got to know each other pretty well! Jan and Janet are both older than our parents, but we still became friends despite the big difference in age. Whenever we visit Janet’s “neck of the woods,” we let her know so we can try to hook up! Unfortunately, her “better half” Jan died a couple of years ago, so it was just Janet joining us for the afternoon. What were we going to do? Head back to the beach, of course! I had a cooler filled with boozy seltzer waters and some Short’s Soft Parade. Cans, of course! We wouldn’t want to get busted by the “beach police,” would we? Janet put a couple of small bottles of white wine in with our booze.  Yes, her wine bottles were made of glass, but hey, she was the lawbreaker, not me (LOL)! Let the day drinking and beach bender commence, shall we? Photos or it didn’t happen!

Short’s Soft Parade is named for a Doors album (and single), did you know?  Well, now you do!  This was their fourth studio album, to be exact! The Soft Parade’s highest-charting single was Touch Me, which peaked at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts. As for the beer, it’s a nice, strong fruity beer that has never, ever given me a hangover. Must be all of the antioxidant power of the multiple fruits, right? This photo is a parody of the photos my friend Kim frequently posts on Facebook of her feet (usually with a book or dog in the photo with her). I buried my feet slightly in the sand on purpose because my bare feet ain’t none too pretty!

Interestingly enough, while we were chilling on the beach and enjoying lovely conversation and even lovelier views, we were, all the while, Waiting For The Sun. That is the name of The Doors’ third studio album, which was more successful than The Soft Parade, hitting #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts (The Soft Parade peaked at #6). Though we were initially in a nice shady spot, we had to periodically move back to stay in the shade. Before too long, there wasn’t anywhere non-sunny to move to! By that point, we were all a bit too buzzed to give a f—! Which explains my rather uneven sunburn (it really happened, sorry no photos)! It really wasn’t too bad and faded after about a day.

I cannot explain why this photo turned out this way. But I think it’s kind of cool! Maybe it was some kind of “commentary’ on our beach bender! Janet’s beach towel can be seen in the background.

We went back to our camp site to have some dinner, which consisted of Koegel’s chicken viennas. Janet said she’d never heard of or had Koegel’s hot dogs before, but then she’s lived in Northern MI for about the past 40 years or so, and it’s kind of a Southern MI “thing.” Koegel’s is pretty much an institution in Flint! Whenever my brother visits from the U.P., he brings some of them back home with him.  To go along with the hot dogs, we also munched on some garden produce. Mike brought some cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers from his garden, and Janet brought some cabbage from her own garden, so we chowed down…Mike gave Janet one of his “lemon” cucumbers, which is yellow and shaped like an apple. And that is exactly how she ate it (you had to be there)! Oh yeah, we also munched on a can of Pringles, too!

Janet had a couple of dogs waiting at home, so she had to hit the road after dinner! After she left, Mike and I took a couple of brief “disco” naps in our camp chairs, so we could be nice ‘n rested for our next activity. What would that activity be? Sunset viewing, of course! This was a very unusual sunset, which my tablet camera couldn’t quite get right. Thankfully our regular digital camera did a better job of capturing its glory. I’ll let the next few photos take over.

 

Random shot of an unknown guy skipping a stone. You can see the stone in mid-air!

 

After the sunset, we built a camp fire and hung around that for a while. Then we headed back to the beach to check out the stars. Sorry…we didn’t get photos of that! But here’s what I said when I looked up at the sky: 

“My God…it’s full of stars.”